1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer apparatus, and particularly to a printer apparatus having a paper support.
2. Description of the Background Art
One type of printer apparatuses is a printer apparatus having a paper support for supporting a paper sheet during printing operation attached thereto. A printer apparatus having such a paper support will now be described. As shown in FIG. 9, this type of printer apparatus 101 includes a printer body 102 for printing on a paper sheet, and a paper support 110 for supporting the paper sheet. For paper support 110, a resin-molded paper support is generally used.
Paired bearing portions 103 are provided at printer body 102 to face each other, while paired rotating shaft portions 111, which are rotatably journaled by paired bearing portions 103, are provided at paper support 110. As shown in FIG. 10, each of rotating shaft portions 111 of paper support 110 is provided with a shaft body 112 protruding outward from paper support 110, while printer body 102 is provided with bearing portions 103 for rotatably journaling shaft bodies 112, respectively, in such a manner that paired rotating shaft portions 111 are held thereby. Each of bearing portions 103 is provided with an opening 104 for receiving shaft body 112.
When printer apparatus 101 is used for printing operation, a paper sheet (not shown) is placed on paper support 110 by allowing paper support 110 to stand at a prescribed angle with respect to printer body 102. The paper sheet placed on paper support 110 is then fed to printer body 102 in accordance with the printing operation of printer body 102. As for the paper support, Japanese Utility Model Application Laying-Open No. 02-043836 proposes a facsimile machine having a paper support made of wire.
However, the conventional printer apparatus suffers from the following problems. In this type of printer apparatus 101, as described above, paper support 110 is opened to stand with respect to printer body 102 and used. In contrast, when printer apparatus 101 is transported, paper support 110 is tilted toward printer body 102 and closed for being packaged. Paper support 110 is made of resin and the like, and thus, when an impact is exerted on paper support 110 during transportation, paper support 110 easily deforms.
In particular, as shown in FIG. 11, when such an impact as to deform paper support 110 as shown in a dotted line 121 is exerted on paper support 110, each of rotating shaft portions 111 of paper support 110 deforms in a direction away from each of bearing portions 103 (an arrow 122). Therefore, shaft body 112 of each of rotating shaft portions 111 is detached from opening 104 of each of bearing portions 103, resulting in that paper support 110 is inevitably detached from printer body 102. To overcome such problems, an additional procedure such as fixing of paper support 110 to printer body 102 with a tape 115, as shown in FIG. 12, for example, is required.